Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged Western partners against jumping to conclusions over what caused the MH17 crash before an international investigation into the catastrophe is conducted.

Moscow would like to see a UN Security Council resolution on the
investigation adopted.

“We are concerned by the fact that some of our partners are
trying to organize the investigation by means of holding separate
bilateral talks with the Ukrainian authorities,” Lavrov
said.

Lavrov believes only the UN Security Council will be able to
ensure the Malaysian Boeing crash site is safe for investigators.
He has accused the Ukrainian government of not delivering on its
promise of a ceasefire in the area.

A team of Dutch and Australian investigators was unable to get to
the MH17 crash site on Sunday because of fighting in towns close to the area. The
group was planning to repeat their attempt at getting to the
scene on Monday.

The minister said he was expecting OSCE observers to arrive to
the border between Ukraine and Russia to monitor the situation
there.

“We are expecting deployment of OSCE mission at the
check-points of ‘Donetsk’ and ‘Gukovo’ in the coming days. I
asked [US Secretary of State] John Kerry in a phone call
yesterday to instruct the US team at the OSCE not to curb the
realization of this agreement.”

Lavrov said Russia would not object to the OSCE mission using
“any means of monitoring,” including drones on the
Russia-Ukraine border.

‘Attempt at censorship’

Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was seriously concerned with the
reports of Ofcom, a TV broadcast watchdog in UK, considering an
investigation into RT following complaints by several viewers,
accusing the channel of being biased in its coverage of the MH17
crash.

“I think this is an absolutely barefaced attempt at
censorship,” the minister said.

Lavrov has called on Russia’s Western partners to respect the
freedom of press.

“We’ve never had in mind undertaking any punitive measures
against the BBC or any other TV companies, even though their
reporting contradicts the information that we possess,” he
said.

Lavrov reminded of an incident in which a report on the MH17
crash was deleted from the BBC’s Russian website and said he
was hoping that governments would not try to get the mass media
“involved in playing political games.”